Category Archives: Support the Troops

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Coming to their senses? I doubt it.

Far be it from me to defend Michael Steele or Barack Obama’s pathetic asses. Live by the sword, die by the sword and all that.

By now most everyone has heard about the big-ass can of worms that Micheal Steele opened the other day when he spoke the truth. Not that everything he said was true. But most of it was. You know it, and so do I. Let’s get the stupid part out of the way.

Rather than playing the standard version of Tribalism™ which would have consisted of throwing spit balls at the Democrats and tell them how they’re Doing! It! Wrong! when it comes to Afghanistan, Steele went for the Hail Mary shot and, in a statement that would make 1984‘s Ministry of Truth look like pikers, placed the entire Afghanistan fiasco at Barack Obama’s feet. 

“Keep in mind again, federal candidates, this was a war of Obama’s choosing. This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.”

Michael Steele attempted to rewrite history and thought he could get away with it.  Certainly we’ve see very little fact-checking and ever so much stenography by the media over the past decades, so who can blame Steele for thinking that no one would call him on this? And of course, the impotent Democrats would take umbrage. Eh, par for the course. But poor Michael Steele, his own party wants to can him.

So, we’ve got The Stupid out of the way. Now for The Truth of his statement.

“Well, if he’s such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that’s the one thing you don’t do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right, because everyone who has tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed.”

I hope Mr. Steele will forgive me if I don’t get all excited about his sudden epiphany.  I take that back.  I don’t give a flying you-know-what if he forgives me or not. 

Never one to ignore an opportunity to have an intelligent discussion on our war policy be as tribalist as the Republicans, the DNC issued a statement that, as Glenn Greenwald put it, continued the Cycle of Stupidity. Sounding just like Republicans, the DNC issue a statement that sounds just like the same sort of crap the Republicans threw at anyone who dared to question Bush’s wars. Using every trope in the book, be it walking away from the fight (shades of Viet Nam), 9/11! 9/11! 9/11! (see Family Guy), or inferring that opposition to never-ending war doesn’t Support The Troops (yeah, because wanting them continually in harm’s way, rather than safe at home is so repellent), the DNC doubles down.

And they wonder why their donors are slipping away.

Yeah, I know. Michael Steele is an ass. He says stupid partisan shit. News at eleven. And Steele, gave more ammo to those in his party that would like to see him gone.

And lost in all of this faux outrage is the truth of Michael Steele’s statement and the question he (for partisan gain) and millions before him (for solid reasons) are asking: Why are we still there?

Fareed Zakaria is asking too.

“If Al Qaeda is down to 100 men there at the most,” Zakaria asked, “why are we fighting a major war?”

Zakaria noted that the war is costing the U.S. a fortune in both blood and treasure. “Last month alone there were more than 100 NATO troops killed in Afghanistan.,” the CNN host said. “That’s more than one allied death for each living Al Qaeda member in the country in just one month.

“The latest estimates are that the war in Afghanistan will cost more than $100 billion in 2010 alone. That’s a billion dollars for every member of Al Qaeda thought to be living in Afghanistan in one year.”

Maybe, just maybe we might be able to have this conversation? Can we finally talk about how endless war is sucking us dry? That pouring billions, no trillions, of dollars into this rat hole is killing us as a democracy?

To sum up, the President can do all of the following, in most cases without meaningful appeal or a trial: execute Americans, imprison people indefinitely, spy on anyone he wants, forbid people from flying, torture people, kidnap people, forbid people from associating with whoever they want, and deny them the right to speak freely anywhere except in small cordoned off zones.

This is America?

This is what the American dream has come to?

Your founders warned you about this.  Warned you that standing armies and unrestrained banks would cost you your freedom.

And the sad thing is that most Americans are ok with it.

Are Americans who don’t believe that everyone is endowed with inalienable rights still Americans worth the name?

Can we finally talk intelligently about this, without the rhetoric? Oh, who am I kidding? Of course not. The American people might come out on top, and the PTB will never let that happen.

Take it away Major General Smedley Butler.

Full text here.

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Four Years


Oh, crap, we all know what today is. Fight your despair. Help a vet or their families. May I recommend Fisher House?

A Fisher House™ is “a home away from home” for families of patients receiving medical care at major military and VA medical centers. The homes are normally located within walking distance of the treatment facility or have transportation available. There are 37 Fisher Houses, with four more in construction or design. Learn more about Future Houses.

Peace.

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This is a crime – Veterans "health care"

Another stunning piece about the state of veterans health care from Dana Priest in the Washington Post.

‘It Is Just Not Walter Reed’

. . . The scandal has reverberated through generations of veterans. “It’s been a potent reminder of past indignities and past traumas,” said Thomas A. Mellman, a professor of psychiatry at Howard University who specializes in post-traumatic stress and has worked in Veterans Affairs hospitals. “The fact that it’s been responded to so quickly has created mixed feelings — gratification, but obvious regret and anger that such attention wasn’t given before, especially for Vietnam veterans.”

Across the country, some military quarters for wounded outpatients are in bad shape, according to interviews, Government Accountability Office reports and transcripts of congressional testimony. The mold, mice and rot of Walter Reed’s Building 18 compose a familiar scenario for many soldiers back from Iraq or Afghanistan who were shipped to their home posts for treatment. Nearly 4,000 outpatients are currently in the military’s Medical Holding or Medical Holdover companies, which oversee the wounded. Soldiers and veterans report bureaucratic disarray similar to Walter Reed’s: indifferent, untrained staff; lost paperwork; medical appointments that drop from the computers; and long waits for consultations.

Sandy Karen was horrified when her 21-year-old son was discharged from the Naval Medical Center in San Diego a few months ago and told to report to the outpatient barracks, only to find the room swarming with fruit flies, trash overflowing and a syringe on the table. “The staff sergeant says, ‘Here are your linens’ to my son, who can’t even stand up,” said Karen, of Brookeville, Md. “This kid has an open wound, and I’m going to put him in a room with fruit flies?” She took her son to a hotel instead.

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Hundreds of soldiers contacted The Washington Post through telephone calls and e-mails, many of them describing their bleak existence in Medhold.

From Fort Campbell in Kentucky: “There were yellow signs on the door stating our barracks had asbestos.”

From Fort Bragg in North Carolina: “They are on my [expletive] like a diaper. . . . there are people getting chewed up everyday.”

From Fort Dix in New Jersey: “Scare tactics are used against soldiers who will write sworn statement to assist fellow soldiers for their medical needs.”

From Fort Irwin in California: “Most of us have had to sign waivers where we understand that the housing we were in failed to meet minimal government standards.”

And will this just be the “cause de jour” for our politicians, or will they actually Do Something?

For years, politicians have received letters from veterans complaining of bad care across the country. Last week, Walter Reed was besieged by members of Congress who toured the hospital and Building 18 to gain first-hand knowledge of the conditions. Many of them have been visiting patients in the hospital for years, but now they are issuing news releases decrying the mistreatment of the wounded.

Sgt. William A. Jones had recently written to his Arizona senators complaining about abuse at the VA hospital in Phoenix. He had written to the president before that. “Not one person has taken the time to respond in any manner,” Jones said in an e-mail.

Press releases won’t get these veterans what they need. And frankly, it seems to me that all this could be taken care of with a simple vote. War veterans get medical coverage. Period. No claims, no “percent of disability.” Cover them, dammit. They made a deal with America. They would put their lives on the line and in exchange, we promised to take care of them when they came back. We owe them at least this much. No more dicking around. No more hearings. No more press releases. Give them their medical and mental health coverage. Just do it.

And then get off the stick and fix the VA facilities.

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Supporting the troops

My buddy Glen McAdoo penned this piece for last Friday’s Lahontan Valley News. Today he forwarded me an email he received in response:

This is one of the saddest things I’ve ever heard. I happen to be the mother of Marine Sgt. Ryan Groves who was quoted in this article. I lived in DC for 20 months with my wounded son. This is ONLY one small portion of the problems there. You have no idea what these young men and women go through on a daily basis. They are fighting a very ugly war and you would think that the ones who make it home would be treated with a little more respect when it comes to their care as inpatients and outpatients. It just sickens me what my son went through. There were times they threatened me with security because I spoke up and advocated for my son the way a mother should. They keep these men and women quiet with their beaurocratic threats. I spoke up for many of them because they couldn’t because of their position. The Marines threatened to send me home more than once. At one point, I had to call my Congressman. It’s a struggle just trying to get through the healing part of it. It just seems there’s alot of unnecessary obstacles along the way.
Thank you for the article and your concern for our troops.
God Bless you.
Terri Hutson-Groves